Presidential...
John Mills
I do hope that you all had a good summer and are now ready for the winter season. Let us hope that bookings pick up, particularly for the children’s entertainers!

In July we were advised that The Devonshire Hotel had changed management and that all our bookings were cancelled. This meant that, once again, we were embarked on a meeting room hunt, which needs to be at a reasonable rent and easy to get to. Thankfully, Tim Bush found a suitable room at £25 per meeting, and the bar prices are very good too!! Our new venue starting with the Dave Jones Lecture on 14th September will be The Garston Masonic Hall in Island Road, which is not far from the Speke Marriott where we met previously.

This, needless to say, is not as modern and luxurious as the Marriot but will enable us to have a more intimate and friendly meeting room with room for up to 50 people. The walls are wood panelled and these do not reflect the light, so the result is that the lighting appears a little dim but we can take a spotlight along to ‘spot’ the lecturer and give everyone a good view. We are welcome to arrive a little early and leave a little later and use the bar. We could even practice some magic on the locals who are very friendly.

Can I ask that as many as possible come to the Dave Jones lecture in order that we can get your views on the room before making it a permanent venue? Try to bring along a few non-member magicians to swell the audience, give a better evening and also let us try-out the new room with 35-40 people. Have you any ideas for meetings at which we all participate, get involved, show some magic or/and learn a new effect? Let one of the committee know.

Some of you will have heard that Bob Ostin has had a spell in hospital but is now back home and is much better. When I visited him in hospital, as you might expect, he was playing with a deck of Bicycles to relieve the boredom. He was in a ward with three old codgers who seemed to sleep most of the time. I think the visit of Steve Tucker will have helped.
Keep making your magic, prepare for our 100th
Regards, John.

Route to the Garston Masonic Hall.

Garston Masonic Hall in Island Road is the only tall, all brick building with no windows.

Directions are, from the City: Follow signs to the airport and you will get onto Aigburth Road, (A 561) after about two miles. Most of this is dual carriageway.

When eventually it becomes 40mph, you will pass a gasometer on your right. When you pass this, at the next traffic lights turn left (there is a PC World opposite as you take the turn ) and keep on the dual carriageway straight on (you should be in Horrocks Avenue).

At the top of this there are more lights and you need to be in the left lane as you get to them. You turn LEFT at the lights. In 200 yards take the next left into Island Road. The hall is half way down on the left.

If by mischance you get to the Marriot where we used to meet you have gone too far. Turn around and follow the next paragraph.

From The Marriott Hotel where we used to meet.
Come out of the hotel and turn left towards the City. You are on a dual carriageway. Drive through the first proper lights and a couple of sets of pedestrian lights. The road rises and there are no houses etc. on your left. You need to be in the right hand lane.

When you go over the top of the rise there are lights and you need to turn right onto another dual carriage way. (As a marker, there is a PC World on the right corner as you turn at that set of lights.)

Follow the dual carriageway, which is Horrocks Avenue, up another rise to more lights. You must be in the left lane and take a left turn at the lights. At the next left, which is 200 yards, go left again into Island Road and the Hall is half way down on the left. You are looking for a tall brick building without any windows and you have found it.

Getting Started as a Ventriloquist
Derek Lawrence

Editor: Several members have expressed an interest in ventriloquism. Here is the first of a series of articles on the subject taken from “Puppet Magic” a booklet by (the late) Derek Lawrence. Since it has been at least three months since I published this first article I am repeating it along with the second instalment.

The first essential is to be able to create a voice distinctly different to your own. This is achieved by pitching the vent voice higher or lower than your normal voice, and, where appropriate, by employing a different dialect to your own.

In the beginning then, ascertain how many different pitches you can sustain and how many dialects you can produce. Multiply the number of pitches by the number of dialects, and you have the the grand total of puppets you could use in any one programme.

To produce the ventriloquial voice the mouth must be slightly open in order to emit the sound. There are two ways of doing this:

1. The muscles around the mouth can be locked by tensing them,
2. The mouth is opened with the facial muscles relaxed.

I strongly advise the second method. (Editor: if you are to avoid repetitive strain injury.)

You are about to make a most pleasant discovery. Sit in front of a mirror with your mouth slightly open and your facial muscles completely relaxed. Now say the following letters without moving your lips: A C D E G H I J K L N O Q R S T U X Y Z.

Now wasn’t that easy! None of these twenty letters present problems.

So only six letters are difficult. They are : B F M P V and W.

F and V are the least troublesome.

For V try this. Press the tip of your tongue against the back of your top front teeth. Now force the long E sound (as in tree) through the tip of your tongue and you will make the sound Vee.

Now for F. Make the short E sound (as in met) and finish it off by touching the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth just behind the top front teeth.

In making these sounds you are expelling air. They are the explosive sounds made by the lips in normal speech. Not to labour a point— you must be breathing out when you make them!

Editor: Next issue M, P, B and W.

“M” can be formed in either of two ways - one may be more comfortable to you than the other. Method 1: Form the sound by pressing your tongue against your upper front teeth while emitting a ‘‘humming’’ sound. Method 2: Press the tip of your tongue against the back of your bottom front teeth and arch the tongue up to the roof of your mouth while forming the M sound.
We are left with “B” “P’ and “W”. And “W” is only troublesome because it contains the “B” sound - so if we master “B” we master “W” as well.

“B” and “P” are formed in similar ways: In normal speech the lips explode lightly to make “P” and firmly to produce “B”. They are the hardest sounds to produce ventriloquially and, because the interior of the mouth does not contain two surfaces identical to the texture of the lips, you will not produce a perfect “B” or “P”. But you can come close enough to fool the human ear.

Perfect ways of producing the irksome “B” and “P” are always being sought, one suggestion is that you explode the tongue against the soft palate at the back of your mouth. This may prove practical for some, but be a total impossibility for others.

For those others the alternative is to explode the tip of the tongue against the semi-soft pad behind the upper front teeth -lightly for the “P” and more firmly for the “B”.

If some labials give you trouble, restrict their use by replacing difficult words with synonyms. It is worth searching for replacement words that are easier to “vent”, as long as the meaning is not weakened in the process. Reject the advice of authors, who should know better, who advocate “gottle” for “bottle” and so forth. Always attempt to achieve the closest possible imitation of the required sound.

Practise daily in front of a mirror to check your lip control. Make it a rule to tape record your sessions, so you can monitor progress. Don’t indulge in long sessions to begin with, let your vocal equipment accustom itself gradually to the extra pressure of the ventriloquial voice.

Always project the vent voice a little more forcefully than your own, but not to excess. Remember the vicar’s plea to the ventriloquist at the old folks concert: “Speak up! They can hear the doll perfectly, but they can’t hear a word you’re saying!”

Don’t fill practice sessions with useless chatter, use material you intend to perform. When practising the alphabet, say it backwards and you will learn a great applause puller. This was a favourite of the late Oscar Paulson, who gave me this verse form that aided learning:
‘‘Z’’ ‘‘Y’’ ‘‘X’’ and ‘‘W’’ ‘‘V’’,
‘‘U’’ ‘‘T’’ “S” and “R” “Q” “P”,
“O” “N” “M” and “L” “K” “J”,
“I” “H” “G” “F” “E” “D” “C” “B” “A”
Distant voice items may daunt you, but they involve more showmanship than real difficulty. Remember playing war games as a child: making the engines of the bombers get louder and louder, then fade into a whisper and into silence as the make believe planes disappeared over the horizon. This is the basis of the “Newsboy” bit, which was always good for a round of applause on the halls.

Starting your voice well back in your throat you produce the far off, thin cry of “Evening Star —get your evening paper!” Like the engine noises you gradually make the voice louder: “Football Results -It’s your full classified!” Bring the voice to full throttle :“Evening Star -get your evening paper!” Now gradually take the newsboy’s calls down to a whisper, until the thin reedy voice fades away completely. Look off to the left as the cries commence. Your head turns slowly to the front as the voice comes closer, and slowly to the right as the “newsboy” exits and his voice fades into the distance.

Uncontrollable Movements
Some of us are blessed with lantern jaws, invisible Adam’s Apples, or beards of suitable lengths that hide the throat movements we make when talking. Some , despite good lip control, are betrayed by the movement of throat glands and the Adam’s Apple. We can do nothing about this except to reduce the amount of neck on show. Cravats, Roll collars , wing collars, large bow ties, tunics with stand up collars, turtle neck shirts - all in varying degrees mask involuntary throat movements. Even shading makeup for the throat, a sort of “shadow black art” can assist in minimising this distraction . On TV of course, the ventriloquist - like the magician - is robbed or aided by camera angles; and the correct angle, height and tilt of the camera can effectively eliminate the problem.

Getting the right Partner
Our aim has been to give you the basics of ventriloquism in the most compact form; to put you in business as quickly as possible. If you never read another word on the subject you now have the essential knowledge. You must add to this your own ability, personality, showmanship and choice of material. The most important item we have left until last: choice of doll. Without personal knowledge of your style and abilities, no one can tell you what character you should use. The only advice I can give is this: Orville was not bought off a shelf, he was created for Keith Harris. Your doll should be exclusive to you, suiting your own style and needs, not a duplicate of the one used by many others; so if you have one like that, do yourself a favour, get a can of plastic wood and change its appearance! Vent dolls are expensive, but it costs no more to have one made to your requirements than it does to buy the assembly line model.

Tarot Diary Card Trick
Arun Bonerjee

I am always fond of Danson’s Diary Card Trick. Over the years I have come up with several versions. Here is the latest one using a Tarot Deck that appears very impressive to a lay audience. Hope you like it.

SET UP:

Take a regular pack of cards and stack it in Eight-Kings sequence using the CHaSeD suit order. Next get an old unused pocket diary for any leap year. You now have to enter the names of playing cards on each day relating to their stacked order. Adding the value of the month to the value of the day i.e. 1 and 1 is 2, the entry for the 1st January is the second card in your stacked deck (King of Hearts). For the 2nd January, 1 and 2 is 3 so you enter the name of the third card in the stacked deck (Three of Spades). Proceed in this way until you have filled up all the days in the diary with the names of cards. These are repeated several times but in a ‘Random Order’. Put the diary in a pocket.

Next get a RIDER Tarot deck. Take out the TEMPERANCE card. Place this card at the 13th position from the top of the deck. Return the Tarot deck to its case. The regular deck is not needed any more.

Also keep a business card in your wallet, which you keep with a pen in your pocket.

PRESENTATION:
The card case containing the Tarot deck is placed on the table. Take out the diary and leaf through its pages allowing the close-up viewers to register the fact the names of playing cards are written throughout its pages one to each day.

Smile and comment that this is called a Gypsy Diary as Gypsies used this sort of diary in their fortune telling business. Truly they believe that playing cards have characteristics that influence days of the year! Incidentally, they also use an ancient pictorial deck of cards that tell about prime human characteristics and you have also got one of these decks with you. Thus commenting, close the diary and place it on the table.

Next take out the Tarot from its card case and hold it as a face up fan in your hand. Keep mixing cards at the face of the deck whilst commenting that this is the pictorial deck used by Gypsies in their ancient fortune telling business. Close up the fan and place the Tarot deck face down on the table.

Take out the business card from your pocket and invite someone to participate in computerised psychic test. Ask the volunteer to tell you his date and month of birth. Let’s say that the spectator was born on the 27th July. Write this date on the blank side of the business card then place the card and pen on the table.

Take hold of the spectator’s right hand (left if it is a female spectator), whilst commenting that you first have to study the spectator’s palm like a real Gypsy Fortune Teller. Study the spectator’s palm and tell him about his characteristics. (Hope you know enough about palmistry to do a bit of Cold Reading!)

Whilst studying the palm intently do a mental calculation as follows: Add the spectator’s date and month of birth together (it’s on the business card). 27 and 7 are 34. As there are 4 suits of cards in a deck, divide 34 by 4 to get 8 remainder 2. The remainder 2 indicates the second suit in the CHaSed sequence, HEARTS as the suit of your force card. No remainder would mean the fourth suit DIAMONDS. Next divide 34 by 13 (the number of cards in each suit). Again, you are only interested in the remainder, which is 8. Mentally run through the Eight-Kings sequence until you get to the eighth card, FIVE. Thus, in this case the force card is the FIVE OF HEARTS. No remainder means the force card will be a JACK.

Picking up your pen, tell your volunteer that from his palm you feel strongly that his psychic card should be the FIVE OF HEARTS. This indicates he does, in fact, have a strong, determined personality. Thus commenting, write down the FIVE OF HEARTS on the business card then put the pen back on the table.

As an afterthought study the spectator’s palm once more. Mentally spell F-I-V-E O-F H-E-A-R-T-S counting the letters to get 12.

You know that the card TEMPERANCE is the 13th card down in the Tarot deck. In this case, from the spelling of the force card, you know that you need to bring it to the 12th position. Simply pick up the Tarot deck and mix the cards at the face whilst shifting one single card from the top to face of the pack. (If the force card had been the QUEEN OF DIAMONDS, which spells with 15 letters, you shift 2 cards from the face to the top of the pack to bring the TEMPERANCE card to the 15th position.)

Looking quite thoughtful, tell the spectator that from his palm you also feel that he has the innate ability to stick to his work, however difficult it may be. A strong characteristic of perseverance is indicated by the TEMPERANCE Tarot card in the ancient fortune telling deck.

Thus commenting, close the deck and place it back on the table. Pick up the pen and write TEMPERANCE below the FIVE OF HEARTS on the business card. Place the card in front of the spectator.

Now ask the spectator to pick up the diary and open it at the 27th January and read aloud the name of the card on that day. Draw the audience’s attention to the business card and the first surprise that the card named is the same as that predicted on the business card.

Enthusiastically tell the spectator that you are confident that his prime characteristic is perseverance denoted by the Tarot card TEMPERANCE. Thus commenting, pick up the pack and loudly spell F-I-V-E O-F H-E-A-R-T-S simultaneously dealing a card for each letter. Turn over the final card to reveal the second surprise- the last card is found to be TEMPERANCE.

Arun Bonerjee

CHATTER
Mark Leveridge

Some observations on MAGIC CLUBS:

Highlights Vol.13 No.6 February 2005

My son Tim is nearly 21 years old now and is currently in his second year studying for a Sports Degree at Worcester University. He plays football for Worcester University 2nd team but the number of games against opposition from other Universities that they play is limited, so recently he decided to join one of the local football teams which are scattered around the city. On his first match day he was picked up in a car by someone who he had never met and didn’t know at all and was whisked off to a game to play with 10 other players who ignored him completely and in fact didn’t speak to him for an hour before the match. Being new he didn’t play from the start but came on for the last half hour. He played really well and was instrumental in his team earning a rare win. At the end of the match all his team mates wanted to talk to him and buy him a drink and suddenly everyone wanted to know him. He had proved himself and had in doing so earned their respect and therefore friendship. His experience reminded me of what it can be like sometimes when you join a magic club.

If you are new to the area or just starting out in magic and so don’t really know anybody, you turn up at the meeting place and sometimes hardly anyone speaks to you. You might be the best magician in the world, but if the local movers and shakers haven’t heard of you, then you are not worthy of their time and attention. If, however, you get up at the meeting and do something which blows everyone away, immediately you are seen in a different light.

Most clubs have an overt and possibly a covert pecking order. The overt type is
provided by the various offices held by committee members - the President, secretary, treasurer etc. The President is clearly to be viewed as the top man or woman with everyone else fanned out below him. These people often wear badges or chains of office in order to signify their importance and standing in the club and so it’s pretty easy to soon understand who is what. But more tricky is the covert type of pecking order. This consists of an unofficial league table of people who are judged and then tabulated according to a number of criteria. It could be to do with age - the longest standing member for instance - or whether a person is a full time pro or an amateur in magic. Or it may be according to skill, or experience, or even to what the person has achieved in magic by way of awards or honours.

As a new member you have no idea what this covert pecking order consists of, and as you are new yourself, you do not have a place anywhere in that league table until such time as you do something to prove your worth. Those at the top of the pecking order may well feel it is not up to them to befriend the latest recruit, and those in the lower reaches of the league table may be worried that the newcomer will be better than them and thus push them further down, so they ignore them too! I travel to a lot of different clubs when lecturing and it is fascinating to dip into this microcosm of society for a few hours and to gradually work out how each one is structured.

Each club has its own atmosphere and character which is created by the personalities and drive of those who currently attend. And clubs can change too. Very few remain exactly the same over many years, but instead they all seem to experience peaks and troughs, being vibrant and successful at one time, and perhaps less so at another. So I think all clubs should try to encourage and welcome new blood, because this new person could turn out to be a new top man in the pecking order.

Highlights Vol.13 No.10 June 2005

Magic clubs are often the lifeblood of the magic world, particularly for the hobbyists who may not have much opportunity to mix with other like-minded people and to perform their effects. You can learn a lot at societies and many of the friends that you make there can often stay with you for a lifetime. As I travel round the country doing lectures and dealer dems I get to see a large number of different clubs, some big, some small, some good, some just trying to be good, and it gives me the opportunity to spot similarities between them all. What follows is an affectionate look at some of the different types of characters who frequent these societies.

The Joker - this is the guy who has a witty retort for seemingly every occasion. He is the one who will often interrupt the President when he is trying to give out parish notices and convulse everyone with his funny asides.

The Introvert - he is often to be seen avidly scouring the club library for books he hasn’t managed to read yet. He tends to sit pretty much on his own near the back or side during lectures and makes copious notes in a small spiral bound notebook.

The Card Man - with a deck of Bicycles apparently superglued to his hands, he is constantly riffling, cutting and double lifting, most of the time without even being aware that he is doing it. Marlo, Lorayne and Walton are the Holy Trinity.

The Enthusiast - he can’t wait to get to the clubroom in order to show anyone who will watch the latest effect which he has half mastered. He never does the same trick twice and always wants to see the very latest.

The Buyer - this member is the saviour for all visiting lecturers and dealers. He enjoys possessing anything that is up for sale, and can usually be seen perusing the displayed dealer items from the very second they are laid out on the table.

The Veteran - he has been coming to the society for at least 100 years and is the one people turn to if there is any dispute over matters from the past. He rarely performs and may have to rely on others to bring him, but he’s an ever-present.

The Celebrity - surrounded by a motley selection of admirers and hangers-on, he only comes to the clubroom when an important lecturer is visiting. He has usually just got back from a cruise/lecture tour/TV appearance and would like to tell everyone about it.

The Official - he loves to be on the committee, to read out minutes of meetings, and to be seen ‘sorting things’. He is more a business administrator than magician and he probably produces the club’s in-house magazine.

Spot anyone you know?

www.markleveridge.co.uk

 

Editorial...
Rick Tynan


A lot of professional magical entertainers are reporting a quiet time over the past few months. We can only hope that this is the lull before the storm of activity we usually experience over the Christmas and New Year period.

Our next meeting is the welcome return of Dave Jones with a brand new lecture on September 14th. Those who saw Dave’s last lecture will definitely want to be there again and those who missed him last time will surely not make the same mistake twice. Dave is a busy professional AND a good lecturer. You will not be disappointed and there will be something for everyone. Magical guests are welcome. Remember to come early and give your opinions on our new venue the Garston Masonic Hall. Many thanks to Tim Bush for his efforts on our behalf in finding a suitable room.

We have two society shows coming up in the not too distant future. Please contact John if you want to help out or if you know of anyone who might need our help fundraising through a 50/50 show.

Last but not least. All the Best to Paul Stone as he approaches the IBM Convention in Eastbourne. The line up of talent he has secured is breathtaking and I, for one, am really looking forward to an excellent week. Paul also has two other events following the Convention. A show in London and Charlie Fry’s Lecture in Liverpool. It would be great if we could support these as much as possible!


All the Best in Magic.

Rick